Zhang Zhiyun, Hua Yining, Zhou Peilin, Lin Shixu, Li Minghui, Zhang Yujie, Zhou Li, Liao Yanhui, Yang Jie
Department of Big Data in Health Science School of Public Health, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Health Data Sci. 2024 Sep 6;4:0127. doi: 10.34133/hds.0127. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disproportionate impact on the sexual and gender-diverse (SGD) community. Compared with non-SGD populations, their social relations and health status are more vulnerable, whereas public health data regarding SGD are scarce. To analyze the concerns and health status of SGD individuals, this cohort study leveraged 471,371,477 tweets from 251,455 SGD and 22,644,411 non-SGD users, spanning from 2020 February 1 to 2022 April 30. The outcome measures comprised the distribution and dynamics of COVID-related topics, attitudes toward vaccines, and the prevalence of symptoms. Topic analysis revealed that SGD users engaged more frequently in discussions related to "friends and family" (20.5% vs. 13.1%, < 0.001) and "wear masks" (10.1% vs. 8.3%, < 0.001) compared to non-SGD users. Additionally, SGD users exhibited a marked higher proportion of positive sentiment in tweets about vaccines, including Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. Among 102,464 users who self-reported COVID-19 diagnoses, SGD users disclosed significantly higher frequencies of mentioning 61 out of 69 COVID-related symptoms than non-SGD users, encompassing both physical and mental health challenges. The results provide insights into an understanding of the unique needs and experiences of the SGD community during the pandemic, emphasizing the value of social media data in epidemiological and public health research.
新冠疫情对性取向和性别多样化（SGD）群体造成了不成比例的影响。与非SGD人群相比，他们的社会关系和健康状况更为脆弱，而关于SGD的公共卫生数据却很匮乏。为了分析SGD个体的担忧和健康状况，这项队列研究利用了2020年2月1日至2022年4月30日期间来自251,455名SGD用户和22,644,411名非SGD用户的471,371,477条推文。结果指标包括与新冠相关话题的分布和动态、对疫苗的态度以及症状的患病率。主题分析显示，与非SGD用户相比，SGD用户更频繁地参与与“朋友和家人”（20.5%对13.1%，<0.001）和“戴口罩”（10.1%对8.3%，<0.001）相关的讨论。此外，SGD用户在关于包括Moderna、辉瑞、阿斯利康和强生在内的疫苗的推文中表现出明显更高比例的积极情绪。在102,464名自我报告新冠确诊的用户中，SGD用户提及69种新冠相关症状中的61种的频率明显高于非SGD用户，这些症状涵盖了身心健康挑战。研究结果为了解疫情期间SGD群体的独特需求和经历提供了见解，强调了社交媒体数据在流行病学和公共卫生研究中的价值。
